


The Spirit Flown Forever

by depugnare



Series: Never Gonna Be a Whole Fic [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: A Ghost Story, M/M, Magical Realism, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-19
Updated: 2016-05-19
Packaged: 2018-06-09 11:50:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6904897
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/depugnare/pseuds/depugnare
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inseparable. that’s one word, you suppose, for two boys with pasts so tangled together you cannot whose blood it was smeared over the pages of history.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Spirit Flown Forever

steve and bucky as a ghost story two bodies that haunt legacies, the specters behind the legend

_A hero to the world.The story of Captain America is one of honor, bravery and sacrifice. The story of Captain America is one of honor, bravery and sacrifice. One of honor, bravery and sacrifice. Honor, Bravery and-_

_Sacrifice._ They have died again and again. Steve was dead under the ice, Bucky incinerated inside his own mind.Two men frozen at the moment they last had the other in their sight, eyes closed to press the memories beneath their lids like flowers between pages. The captain made his own tomb and carved his loss into the ice taking the end of the world with him. The sergeant was shoved into his grave, hands twisted by violence and spin turned to steel by force. They are both smeared with blood when they open their eyes in the next century. It is their own.

_Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their stripes. Their mission, taking down HYDRA, the Nazi rogue science division. Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their stripes. Their mission, taking down HYDRA. Battle tested, Captain America and his Howling Commandos quickly earned their-_

_Stripes._ The fire and ash of a world war coats their skin, greasy with fear sweat. Their skin is visible in streaks beneath layers of dirt. Their motley group has been hardened by carnage. Their bravado hides fragile ribs around aching hearts. One thousand planes fill the sky, billowing lines of contrail blocking out the sun. Make no mistake, when the enemy sees the white stripes of Captain America’s wings, they know what follows. When Steve Rogers touches down in Germany 70 years later, borne on greater wings than last time, it is like watching a valkyrie fall to earth and reap an entire nation. (The old man that does not bow before a god now sinks to his knees in the face of this immortal. He remembers that face, cowl shadowed eyes the subject of every German’s nightmare. He remembers that face, pale and wan, turned towards a man in a blue coat like tree leaves tilt towards the rain.) 

_Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable in both the schoolyard and the battlefield. Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steven Rogers were inseparable in both the schoolyard and the battlefield. Best friends since childhood, Bucky Barnes and Steve Rogers were-_

_Inseparable._ that’s one word, you suppose, for two boys with pasts so tangled together you cannot tell whose blood it was smeared over the pages of history. Can angels lie spine to spine? They must envy the two of them; a single heart beneath two pairs of ribs, beating gentle and weary over a dozen lifetimes. How do you separate them, when you cannot discern whose life was saved first? Who becomes the ghost when the other sleeps, welcomed home by familiar darkness? They become like butterfly wings, fluttering perfectly in sync and slipping in and out of sight. (Like jewels, bright in the sun. Delicate. Their emotions shed like scales on a wing, torn away and left empty and colorless. This too is envious, to have someone swallow your grief.)

_Barnes is the only howling commando to give his life in service of this country. Barnes is the only howling commando to give his life in service. Barnes is the only howling commando to give his-_

_Life._ How do they know they are alive? Blood flushed skin? Eyelids flickering as you search the darkness for your dreams? A heart that squeezes out of reflex? Still, this could be a dream, everything so bright and loud like oil painting memories fused by angry smears. They have seen the world that keeps changing around them while they lie frozen, with those silent screams trapped in their lungs. Steve dreams of hands, grasping-clawing-tearing at him, so desperate to feel the skin of a god. Jangling piano notes echo when he speaks, dancing around the sound of his footsteps. Bucky has nightmares of rattling clapboard houses and the drip of condensation on concrete. Wires and computers circle him, crooning in creaks of plastic and metal, yearning for him to be in their embrace again. (It is terrible, to be made a legend while still alive.)


End file.
